The Fosse Factor in Business Success

If you want to succeed and to succeed in a really spectacular way, you can today. It matters not one iota that the economy is flat, that prices in general may be falling and that the percentage of unemployed Americans has not dropped. So what! All that anyone who wants to succeed in business has to remember is that there are going to be great opportunities, even in the worst of economic times. What one has to do is figure out where to find those opportunities.

Of course, there is more to being successful than just identifying and capitalizing on a great opportunity. But in one sense, I am not referring to developing a great business plan or a really effective marketing plan. The real key to succeeding big time, where others may fail or only create a modestly successful venture, is something that a fellow named Bob Fosse understood very well.

Bob Fosse so distinguished himself that he became one of the most amazing choreographers and directors of the 20th century. His credits include such Broadway blockbusters as Cabaret, Damn Yankees, and Chicago. His movie credits include All That Jazz.

Bob Fosse understood that it was not enough just to put in a good days work. Nor was it enough to learn how to do something and make sure it was done correctly. He understood that to stand out from other people, he had to take whatever he was creating or directing and take it to the next level and then maybe to the next level after that. He had to be more thorough than anyone else and to produce works that weren't just good... the artistic works he created were compelling and great. He knew that every moment that he was working in his craft, he had to give 150% of what he was capable of doing and of being.

But more importantly, he knew how to get the very best out of every dancer, actor, cinematographer or film editor with whom he was associated. He had a clear vision of what he wanted to produce. He had a clear vision of how he wanted a piece of choreography to come across or the camera angle to use in a movie scene. Yes, he was a hugely demanding person to work under. But all he asked of a dancer or an actor was to never quit. If a dancer would struggle to master a dance routine, he would be supportive of those efforts to the bitter end. As his alter ego in All That Jazz says to one of the dancers, "I don't know if I can make you a great dancer. But I can make you a good dancer."

He inspired his dancers and actors to be fearless... to go for broke, no matter how things turned out. They trusted him and his vision of what he wanted to create so much, that they were willing to wrap their heads around his ideas and as an ensemble translate his visions into brilliant realities.. Bob Fosse taught everyone whose life he touched to become fearless. He taught them it was okay to push the envelope and try out a new idea and see if it would fly. That is the ultimate and most liberating kind of empowerment.

In my book, that is how one leaves a lasting legacy to the world during one's life. We become uncompromising in building our dreams and we give everything we've got to realize those goals. We are equally uncompromising in asking those who work for us to give us no less. We inspire those who work with us and for us to embrace our vision of what can be. We empower them to become so much more than they ever thought they could become, in the pursuit of the common goals. As individuals, we push the status quo aside and show the rest of the world what can be achieved, if we embrace the right mindset.

Of course, that is a tall order for anyone. To aspire to live at that level, isn't something that everyone can actually do. Or is it? Isn't it easier to work for someone else and let them lay out what needs to be done... and how to do it? Sure. Isn't it easier just to follow instructions, without asking why it is being done or can it be done more efficiently or better? Absolutely. But if that is the path we choose to take, what are we and what is the quality of our lives? How many of us truly want to live ordinary and undistinguished lives?

We will always be constrained by certain laws and certain business/social standards. But we cannot allow constraints to be imposed on our creativity or our visions of what we can accomplish in our businesses. Men like Thomas Edison, Bill Gates or Steven Jobs each saw a vision of the future. They recognized an amazing opportunity and grabbed onto it, never letting go. The rest as they say is history. Companies like eBay, Fedex, Amazon, the Southern Pacific Railroad, the New York Times... and the list is endless, all exist because visionaries saw the future and made that vision a reality.

We find ourselves in times in which too many companies, large and small, now view the future with greatly diminished expectations. The future for the next 18 months is largely uncertain. So they are scaling back their operations and taking a wait-and-see posture, until the indicators give more positive signs in the economy.

So who is going to take the first steps to pull our economy out of the doldrums? Not the corporate giants. Who else than? A few small companies who have a clear vision of the future. A few small business people who have learned to be fearless. Who have nothing to lose, because the banks and the government don't seem to be on their side. Who have only their creativity and a vision of what can be to drive them forward. Who have earned the respect of their employees, suppliers and their customers. Who have inspired and empowered their employees to join them in building a future for the company and for themselves. Who have figured out how to become lean and mean and make things happen when other business cannot or won't budge an inch forward unless it appears to be absolutely safe to do so. Who are going to shake things up and change the way that things are done in the marketplace.

When these visionary companies have made their moves, the rest of the pack will eventually follow.

Take a hard look at the accomplishments of Bob Fosse. Look at what one man was able to do. Consider how much he changed the lives of the people he touched and how much he changed the world by his efforts.

If you are the owner of a small business, what kind of stuff are you made of? What path are you choosing for your company to take? Are waiting to first see which way the wind is blowing? Or are you developing a vision of where you can be taking your company and setting aside your fears to develop a strategy to move forward?

Are you going to be one of the fearless few who will be leading the rest of us into a brighter future? Is your company going to be among those which become the indicators of our economy's recovery?

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After awhile, I get the message

I would go to business mixers and explain to small business owners what I did. That my job was to make them great CEOs of their companies... to teach them how to mine their business records for critical data they could use for making better decisions. Everyone I talked to said, "That's great. I really could use that. But I don't think I am big enough to need that yet." That translates into few if any people hiring me to work for them.

So literally yesterday, I figured out that I was trying to sell services that 99 per cent of the people I was talking to were never going to buy. I was fighting a losing battle. In this environment, people are doing their best just to survive and keep their doors open. Money is tight. Consultants like me are going to have a tough time convincing most businessmen that there is a compelling reason to hire a productivity consultant, at least for now.

My getting the point yesterday is one of those "I've got good news for you and some bad news for you" situations. On one hand, the whole marketing approach I worked out for my business has proven to be a bust. The wrong product at the wrong time.

The good news is that when I go back to the drawing board, I can rethink and reinvent my company yet one more time. I now know that I need to identify a product or service small business owners will buy and which they feel will provide a compelling benefit for their companies. And then I will need to rewrite my 30 second elevator speech and refine it.

I classify this as a mid-course correction. I cannot begin to enumerate all the things I have learned about building a company over the last 8 to 9 months. This just proves that learning never ends. The only difference is that the most important learning we do is probably not going to be in a classroom. Even if we never will earn a degree from the University of Hard Knocks, the curriculum is ever so compelling. I feel so much smarter than I did last year and a lot surer of myself than I did then.

So day to day experience has been sending me a message. Apparently for awhile, I wasn't listening very well. I am told that as we get older, we learn to do a lot more listening than talking. Even if we sometimes forget to listen all the time to some inner voice that tells us we are veering off course, sooner than later we will receive the message loud and clear. Hopefully, the message will arrive before we leap off of a cliff into the abyss. .

This is not like falling off the horse and having to get back on. Far from it. It is more about letting the horse take off in a different direction and not reining in the animal. So there it is. I get the message and I have to put on my CEO hat and my marketing hat. Time to revise my working strategies. Time is a'wasting. Cheerio.

Howard Fireman